It looked like a Bee-like robber fly at first, however you can instantly see the slender, elbowed antennae consistent with bees. Other bee-like structures which a fly shouldn't have: the comb-like pollen-carrying structure on the hind tibia, and the "tongue" being extended from between the mandibles. I'm not good at ID'ing bees, but this looks like a Bombus to me.

thanks Adalbert. I can also see the resemblence, but I really find it hard to tell the species apart in the bombus genus, even though this particular one seems to me to look fairly distinctive. I'll post another image of it from a bit of a different angle to assist in the ID

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